Staley was raised in a large Catholic family (he was one of 13 children) with an uncle who was the Abbot of St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. At age 19 Saley took his vows and joined the Benedictine Abbey as a monk at St. Vincent. At age 25 he became a Catholic priest. Over the years Staley was part of both the Liturgical Confenence and the American Vernacular Soceity, organization for the change in the Catholic mass and the second one specifically working for the whole mass to be in English. By 1966 Staley felt he could no longer bring about change within the monestery and he quit it and began the process of laicization. At this point he was acepted into a program as a post-doctoral fellow in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to starting the program he began work with the Institute for Human Achievement in Philadelphia. It was here that he met Mariellen Stallard, a graduate student who was also a Latter-day Saint, and Mariellen was the first to intorduce Staley to the Church and its doctrines. Through attending the Philadelphia ward, meeting with the missionaries and other members and much prayer, Staley came to join the Church.

Staley was baptized in July of 1967. Shortly after that he married Marielle Stallard.